Why Facebook accounts are getting locked and what is “Facebook Protect”?
Some Facebook users received strange, spam-like emails such as “Your account requires advanced security from Facebook Protect”, earlier this March. Emails urged users to turn on the Facebook Protect feature with two-factor authentication up to 17th March 2022. The users were warned that their accounts would be locked if they failed to update their security settings.
Facebook claims that this is a security program for users with the highest possibility of getting attacked by malicious threat actors. These are human rights activists, journalists as well as government officials.
Facebook Protect manages the accounts of such users and protects them from potential cyberattacks. It even turns on the two-factor authentication (2FA) by default. This implementation by Meta, however, wasn’t implemented very well, which is why most of these accounts have been locked out by Facebook.
Most users neglected the email sent from the email address “security@facebookmail.com” as they mistook it for spam. But it was genuine. The people who did not activate Facebook protection before the given deadline began receiving messages from Facebook that explained why they can’t log into their respective accounts. They are then shown steps on how to unlock their accounts.
Facebook claims that the Protect feature helps users install two-factor authentication and monitors the potential threats to such accounts. The 2FA along with the third-party authentication apps help in the security improvement of the users’ online accounts.
After all this, people started reporting their issues on other social media platforms like Twitter. Some people reported that even after the activation of the feature, their accounts were still locked out. Some of the users have also reported technical issues while getting the two-factor authentication codes over text.
In December last year, Meta announced that it would require users who are at the highest risk, to protect their accounts with two-factor authentication.
Facebook tested Facebook Protect for the first time in 2018 and the expansion of the security service grew before the U.S. elections of 2020. In September 2021, the company started its expansion throughout the world.
As per a statement by Facebook in 2021, “Since then, more than 1.5 million accounts have enabled Facebook Protect, and of those, nearly 950k accounts nearly enrolled in two-factor authentication. We are on track to expand the program to more than 50 countries by the end of the year, including the United States, India, and Portugal.”
We can turn the Facebook Protect feature for our account through the following steps:
Step 1: Click on the downward arrow in the top-right corner of the Facebook window.
Step 2: Click on the ‘Settings and Privacy’ and then on ‘Settings’.
Step 3: Click on ‘Security and Login’.
Step 4: Under the Facebook Protect tab, click on ‘Get Started’.
Step 5: On the Welcome Page, click on ‘Next’.
Step 6: On the Facebook Protect benefits screen, click on ‘Next’.
Step 7: Then Facebook will scan your account for potential weaknesses and give suggestions on what can be fixed in your account to turn on the Facebook Protect feature.
Step 8: Click on ‘Fix Now’ and follow all the on-screen instructions to turn on the feature.
Source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-facebook-accounts-getting-locked-what-protect-aariya-rathi/?
